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just for fun

I have been trying to come up with some new ideas for A New Kind of Normal and as I’ve been combing through the blogosphere and the land of YouTube, I discovered how much I love Favorites posts or videos. I cannot begin to count how many products/recipes/ideas I have fallen in love with after checking out a favorites post or video by one of my favorite bloggers or YouTubers.

Out of this concept came Five Friday Favorites.

Every Friday I will be sharing my weekly favorites in the following categories: Beauty Product Love, Fashion Find, Gluten-Free Goodness, Pin I’ve Completed, and Most Awesome Blog Post. Of course there is an optional “bonus” favorite because who knows when there may be the need to share a sixth favorite?

Let’s get back in the swing of things and chat about this week’s Five Friday Favorites:

Beauty Product Love

I could not narrow it down to one product this week! I actually have a makeup favorite and 2 hair favorites but its the combo of the two favorites that I love so much so I’m still sticking to the rules. Sort of. I’m pulling out my bonus slots 🙂

My makeup favorite is actually a brand that I have fallen back in love with, Raving Beauty Cosmetics. I have several of the loose eyeshadow pigments and I love them! They have been sitting in my makeup drawer unused so I decided to pull them back out this week! The very first beauty channel I ever watched on YouTube was GoldieStarling and watching several tutorials using these eyeshadows, I had to give them a try! I have previously posted about her Rocker Eyes tutorial but today I decided to follow the Fall Smokey Eyes tutorial. Loose eyeshadows can be messy but with a good eyeshadow primer and a setting spray, the results are worth it and I love supporting small businesses.

Onto my favorite hair combo of the week! I am in the process of growing out my hair (again!) and I have a lot of hair. My hair is really thick and wavy and while I typically try to tame the waves with a flat iron, I embrace the big and go for a lot of volume and texture. My hair is the thickest at the crown which makes this combo perfect. My two weapons of choice are the Conair All-In-One Comb and the L’Oreal Boost It High Lift Creating Spray. The comb may look a little funny but it is perfect for lifting and styling. After I have finished straightening my hair, I spray the High Lift spray and use the comb to gently tease the roots of my hair in the crown area which helps to counteract the weight of my hair. I love the resulting fullness and texture so this is definitely a combo I am going to stick with for awhile!

Fashion Find

My fashion find this week is actually a website called ShopMissA.com. The reason that this site is a favorite is that everything on the site is $1. Yes, ladies, you heard me right. One dollar. Miss A is an accessories shop that carries jewelry, hair accessories, and cosmetics. I discovered the site through YouTube and I was pleasantly surprised when I received my first order! I stuck mostly with jewelry and was impressed with the quality. It is a great place to look for more trendy, “disposable” pieces that may not carry from season to season. I tend to have sensitive skin when it comes to jewelry but I have not had any issues with turning colors or irritation. I placed an order this week with some of the new pieces they stocked for the fall! I will definitely post pics on Instagram when it comes in! Definitely check it out and let me know what your favorite pieces are!

Gluten-Free Goodness

I know I happened to post about cookies for my last gluten-free goodness favorite but I’m doing it again! I have always loved Oreos so when I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, I went through withdrawals. When I was first diagnosed four years ago, we did not have a lot of gluten-free options locally but thank goodness that has changed! If you were also an Oreo addict in a past gluten-filled life, you need to find the Glutino Chocolate Vanilla Creme cookies. They are amazing! The Glutino Chocolate Chip cookies are great too if you were a more Chips-ahoy girl. I wonder if we could petition to have them create double-stuffed? 🙂

Most Awesome Blog Post

One of my absolute favorite places to find blogging tips and tutorials is Independent Fashion Blogger’s (IFB). Even though I am trying to discover my own style and writing more posts about my favorite beauty and fashion finds, I would not consider myself a fashion blogger. I don’t think you can call yourself a fashion blogger if you get super excited that overalls seem to be coming back in style. Regardless of my niche, IFB is an amazing resource for blogging and tech tips. One of the areas I struggle the most in getting the hang of is SEO (search engine optimization). I know how important SEO is in bringing traffic to your blog and even though I sat in an SEO workshop at the Type A Conference I attended, I still don’t get it. Trying to grasp SEO reminds me of trying to grasp sines and cosines in trigonometry in the 11th grade. There is just a disconnect there but the good news is that IFB posted an amazing post this week that includes 40 (yes, forty) resources as a part of their IFB’s Guide to SEO. The resources are broken down into manageable, bite-size pieces which has helped me get a better grasp on SEO without becoming overstimulated and overwhelmed. If you are SEO-challenged like I am, you will want to check this post out and either Pin it or bookmark it!

There are a few of my favorite things for this week! I would love to hear about your favorites so let me know in the comments if you guys would be interested in making this a weekly linkup!

I have been trying to come up with some new ideas for A New Kind of Normal and as I’ve been combing through the blogosphere and the land of YouTube, I discovered how much I love Favorites posts or videos. I cannot begin to count how many products/recipes/ideas I have fallen in love with after checking out a favorites post or video by one of my favorite bloggers or YouTubers.

Out of this concept came Five Friday Favorites.

Every Friday I will be sharing my weekly favorites in the following categories: Beauty Product Love, Fashion Find, Gluten-Free Goodness, Pin I’ve Completed, and Most Awesome Blog Post. Of course there is an optional “bonus” favorite because who knows when there may be the need to share a sixth favorite?

Let’s kick off the inaugural Five Friday Favorites:

Beauty Product Love

I cannot begin to put into words my love of the Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer. I use the brightening shade under my eyes and the fair shade to help cover redness on my cheeks and the center of my forehead. This product is amazing. If I don’t want to wear a full face of makeup, I can pair this concealer up with a BB cream and a little powder and can have a nice, even skin tone without wearing a lot of product. I always thought I had to wear a full coverage foundation in order to cover the redness until now. Hands down this is my holy grail concealer and a must-have in my makeup bag!

Fashion Find

I am almost always wearing flats as the combination of fibromyalgia and being less than graceful doesn’t usually mix well with heels. The problem is that I love heels. I love the way heels look. I love the way I feel in heels. I feel more feminine and more spunky. I just love it so I hate that I can’t wear them on a regular basis. Abby and I were out shopping one afternoon at Kmart (yes, I live in the sticks and still shop at Kmart) and we happened to walk by the shoe section and I spotted these Jaclyn Smith Arial Wedges.

I loved the color options and the heel height looked somewhat manageable so I tried them on. The wedge was the perfect height and they were so comfortable! I was actually shocked by how great they felt. I scooped them up in red but I may have to check back to see if they have the green still available!

Gluten-Free Goodness

When I was visiting my parents in Virginia, their Food Lion had just put in a new and well-stocked gluten-free section so I got excited thinking that I may have similar luck at our Food Lion in town. Its kind of out of the way but I thought if I could find some great gluten-free products, it would be worth it. Nope. I couldn’t even get the store manager to understand what “gluten-free” meant. He kept referring to gluten-free as “diabetic food.” I can only assume that he was having a hard time distinguishing gluten-free from sugar-free but I would think at this day in age and as the store manager of a national grocery store chain, you would be a little more aware as Celiac disease is becoming more recognized and as following a gluten-free diet has become “trendy.” Don’t get me started on that one but hey, if it means more product options, I’ll take it. Anyways, I walked out of Food Lion empty-handed but went straight to my regular grocery store and was excited to find that they had actually expanded their gluten-free products! I think I’ll be sticking with them! Sorry about the side story but onto the good stuff.

My awesome find of the week: Immaculate Double Chocolate Cookie Dough. I had previously tried the Chocolate Chunk cookies by the same company (also amazing!) so I was excited to try this out! All in the name of gluten-free research of course 🙂 These cookies turned out as good as they sounded and will most definitely be repurchased in the future. Abby & I had a special mommy-daughter day yesterday that included a trip to the pool, tie-dying t-shirts, and baking cookies and all three were a success! Immaculate Baking Company offers gluten-free break apart cookies in Chocolate Chunk, Peanut Butter, and Fudge Brownie. Convenience, gluten-free, and delicious? Count me in!

Pin I’ve Completed

This may sound dumb for this week but my success on Pinterest this week has actually been going back to Pinterest and focusing on utilizing the wealth of information available to breathe some new life into A New Kind of Normal and my life in general. I’ve been floating adrift for . . . well . . . too long. I’m finally beginning to feel anchored again so I am excited to be able to share steps forward I’ll be able to make from this point on. I am feeling more energized and passionate and I feel like I have a refreshed spirit and purpose so I am really pumped about the future of A New Kind of Normal. New things are on the horizon!

Most Awesome Blog Post

One of first YouTube channels I have ever followed and one of most favorite is Vintageortacky. Cora is hilarious and amazingly talented so I recommend you check her channel out! One of the first things you may notice is her fabulous hair. I am a bit partial to lovely ladies with awesome hair color 🙂 I have been on a quest to find the perfect shade of purple (I am getting close! Blog post to come) so while I’ve been on the hunt, Cora’s tips and tutorials have been extremely helpful! Her post this week Dye Another Day: How to Dye Your Hair Vibrant Pink, Purple, and Black is a great resource if you are considering trying out a vibrant hair color or are already rockin’ it and just looking for some tips.

There are a few of my favorite things for this week! I would love to hear about your favorites so let me know in the comments if you guys would be interested in making this a weekly linkup!

I have had my Nikon DSLR for a couple years now but I have not yet taken the leap to venture out of “auto” mode much. That is all about to change. I am determined to turn the dial to manual mode and learn to unleash the photography genius that exists outside of auto. I have built quite a Pinterest board on learning how to use my camera so I am starting to put it to use.

What better way to start than by having a glitter photo shoot with Abby and her cousins! We got the girls all decked out in their favorite princess dress and headed outside with handfuls of glitter!

Abby & Dorothy Anne

Queen Elsa

Rapunzel

Elsa Throwing Snow

Our little Tinkerbelle & her pixie dust!

The girls had SO much fun! It will definitely be happening again! Maybe next time someone else can hold the camera so I can join in! Every girl wants to play in glitter!

As previously stated, I am a complete DSLR newbie and manual-mode-dummy so I had help figuring out camera settings so that the shoot would be successful! These 3 blog posts/articles were extremely helpful:

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (which you should of course! Ha!), you might have picked up on my newfound obsession with makeup!

I think its likely that this new fascination stems from some of the self-consciousness I’ve been dealing with (makeup always fits no matter what your size) as well as having the opportunity to explore some new interests. I had always joked about going back to school for hair or makeup so who knows, maybe its a new calling 🙂

It was a happy mail weekend so I got some new makeup to play with! I have always tended to go for a darker eyeshadow look so I want to try something different and picked out some new colors for Spring! This is the new palette from BH Cosmetics called Forever Nude (ordered through Hautelook for a steal):

This palette contains six eye shadows, a highlighter, two cheek colors, and two lip colors! I have read good things but haven’t tried out this brand before so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

A brand that I have recently discovered and have loved is ELF (which stands for Eyes Lips Face). This brand offers products at extremely affordable prices (most products run between $1-$6). You would think it would mean the products were crap but the quality is awesome! Of course there are a product here or there that stinks but overall, I have yet to try a product that I really hated. ELF sells at Target and Walgreens (and likely some other drugstores) but I do most of my shopping online for two reasons: 1) I live in the sticks and 2) Their online sales are fantastic (currently all best seller and new products are 50% off). At the last sale, I picked up some of their Baked line to try out:

I haven’t had a chance to play with them yet but from swatching the colors when they came in, I am very excited to try them out! It is currently in the 70s here in my part of NC today so I am beyond ready for warmer weather and new styles and makeup for Spring!

So I have two questions: 1) would you be interested in reading more makeup/style posts? and 2) are there any products or trends you looking forward to try out this Spring?

*Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. All products were purchased on my own. The Hautelook link is a referral link but thats all. Just want to keep it real y’all 🙂

As a part of my 2013 goals, I really wanted to get some blog head shots done both to update my social media profiles and materials as well as have some fun and get a boost of confidence! I had not had any fun pictures of my new hair color to infuse a little of my personality back into my online persona. It took me until December to cross it off my to-do list but I got it done with the help of my friend Ryanne at R@ck Photography! It just so happened that I ended up starting a blog redesign around the same time so these will really come in handy!

These are some of my favorite solo shots:

On our way out the door, I decided to bring my Charlie along for the shoot! As I have mentioned, she is a huge part of my heart and the best therapy I could ever ask for! She turned 13 this year and is starting to have issues with arthritis and her vision so I really meant a lot to have some meaningful shots taken together!

How do you think they turned out? Have you ever done a solo photo shoot either for your blog or just for fun?

My last day in A Week In My Life ended up a little more exciting than the previous two. A little.

At Abby’s Pre-K, they have one parent activity every month. Last month, they invited all the moms to come make caramel apples and this month it was carving pumpkins with dads!

It looks like Abby did a little restyling after I dropped her off that morning (hence the sagging skirt and interesting headband placement). John was very excited to find out that they already had the pumpkins cleaned out when he got there!

After school, I needed to get out of the house before going completely batty so we packed up my wheels and headed to Walmart. It is so beyond lame that a trip to Walmart is a highlight of the week (you know you are a spoonie when…..). I was excited to sport my new Choose Hope shirt:

It was definitely exciting to find my Warrior t-shirt in the mailbox when I got home!

Later on, John and Abby went out to eat Mexican for dinner while i enjoyed this:

Some times are just not fair. But I did have a visit from the Doc later that night:

I think this little girl will be really excited about what Santa plans to deliver for Christmas! She is going to be Doc McStuffins for Halloween! Let me rephrase that. At this moment, she plans on dressing up as Doc McStuffins for Halloween but it would not be the first time if she changes her mind the day of. Thankfully we have a closet full of dress up clothes in preparation for Disney!

That is my week in pictures! If we were to follow you around for a week, what would we see?